


The Giant Rat King

by blueconstellation



Series: Lance Bday Week [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Canon Compliant, Cuban Lance (Voltron), Fluff, Gen, Lance's family - Freeform, Post Diplomatic Meeting, Storytelling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-23
Updated: 2017-07-23
Packaged: 2018-12-06 01:13:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11589960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blueconstellation/pseuds/blueconstellation
Summary: Lance tells a story from his childhood





	The Giant Rat King

**Author's Note:**

> Part 1 of my Lance Bday Week series!
> 
> Day 1 - Family
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> You can find me on tumblr [here](http://www.adhd-lance.tumblr.com), come scream abt Lance with me

“Pidge, you can’t go around stealing random animals off of planets,” Shiro admonished as the paladins walked into the main room. “Haven’t you learned anything from Coran’s stories about Altea?”

 

Pidge groaned and flopped onto one of the couches. “It was _tiny_ , Shiro. And it was really cute” 

 

“So was the Klanmüirl,” Hunk pointed out. Pidge shot him a glare and he laughed. 

 

“What, are the mice not cute enough for you?” Lance joked as he sat down next to Pidge. “I’m sure they’d have a few choice words about that.”

 

Pidge smacked him on the arm and got up from her seat. “I’m going to sit next to Keith, since he’s the only one that hasn’t _betrayed me_.” She crossed her arms and slouched down onto the opposite couch.

 

“Oh, come on, Pidge. Don’t be so dramatic.” Lance said.

 

“Yeah,” Hunk agreed as he sat down where Pidge had been. “Lance did the same thing when he was little.”

 

“Oh, really now?” She leaned forward and looked at Lance. “Do tell.”

 

“I was like three, Hunk. Don’t ruin my good name like this.”

 

“What good name?” Keith asked, and chuckled when Lance scowled at him. 

 

“Ha ha,” he mocked and looked over at Pidge. “It wasn’t that big of a deal, I was fine.”

 

“You gave your mom a heart attack, though.” Hunk grinned and Lance rolled his eyes. 

 

“She always tells that story so dramatically, it wasn’t actually that bad.”

 

“Sure, dude. Because every mom is completely calm when their son disappears and comes back with a bunch of giant rats he found who knows where.”

 

“They weren’t rats! They were hutias,” Lance defended and crossed his arms.

 

“What’s a hutia?” Pidge asked.

 

“It’s an animal we had back on Cuba. It’s like a foot and a half long and it’s _way cuter_ than a rat. They live in the mangroves and climb around in trees and stuff.”

 

“If they stay in the trees, how did you manage to get one?” Keith countered, raising an eyebrow. 

 

“Okay, so our whole family went on a trip to Jardines de la Reina one time, which is an island off the coast of central Cuba that’s like a national park, and one of my sisters—who was fifteen at the time—and I went off to look around a bit. Well, more like I went off and she had to come babysit. Anyway, I guess I wandered off at some point and I was over along the shore eating some crackers when like three of them just walked up and stood by me. I gave them some of my crackers and it just spiraled from there.” Lance paused to huff a small laugh before continuing. “More kept coming so I kept giving them my crackers. I ran out eventually so I went back to try and find my sister so I could get more for them and they just followed me. I went back to find more than half my family freaking out because they couldn’t find me. My sister looked at me surrounded by a small pack of hutias and she just turned around and walked away.” 

 

Pidge looked absolutely ecstatic about learning this. “So wait, you just- your whole family thought you’d been kidnapped or something and you just walk out of the bushes with a new squad like an animal god or some shit.”

 

“Language,” Shiro cut in, but there wasn’t any heat behind it since he was smiling too. 

 

“How long did your sister hold that over your head for?” Keith asked with a smirk.

 

“Forever!” Lance exclaimed. “She tells everyone that story, _everyone_.”

 

“Yeah,” Hunk piped in, “one time when I was over, she and Lance got into an argument and she was like ‘hey remember that time you died?’, and Lance lost it.”

 

“Because I didn’t die! Which I said, and she was like ‘could’ve fooled me’,” he changed his tone to a mocking one. 

 

Pidge interrupted with laughter again. “I love her,” she said. “She’s my new favorite member of your family, sorry Lance.”

 

“No offense taken, she’s mine too. She drives me crazy but she’s amazing. I miss her a lot. I miss them all.” His face settled into a fond smile.

 

“Don’t worry, man, you’ll see them again,” Hunk said and bumped his shoulder against Lance’s.

 

“I hope so.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hutias are adorable and amazing and you should watch these videos: [x](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSoCNpEXeO8) [x](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQREp2VsZrw) [x](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VOsJbdSFX0)


End file.
